BEHS 364 7382 Discussion 1
BEHS 364 7382 Discussion 1
Economic Burden of Alcohol Use
Alcohol use is a longstanding issue that imposes adverse effects not only at an individual level but also has serious health and economic implications. Notable alcohol use reduction strategies have been devised to address this issue including goals within the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 (Bardach et al., 2019). The effects of alcohol consumption significantly undermine three sectors namely; the health sector, the criminal justice sector, and economic productivity and stability (Manthey et al., 2021). This shows the need for policies and interventions to prevent and treat alcohol consumption by the general population.
The health effects of alcohol use directly or indirectly lead to significant economic burdens. These include alcohol-attributable diseases
such as liver cirrhosis, increased mortality with resultant loss of life years, road traffic accidents, and loss of quality-adjusted life years (Jyani et al., 2019). Alcohol use results in a high disease burden having been implicated in the causation of greater than 200 International Classification of Diseases categories (Manthey et al., 2021). The management of these conditions is costly both to the healthcare system and the affected individual through out-of-pocket expenses. The estimated treatment cost far outweighs the gains from the sale of alcohol thus imposing a net economic loss. The premature deaths attributable to alcohol consumption also lead to reduced productivity which directly affects the economy.
The economic burden of alcohol use occurs at different levels. These include the drinkers direct expenditure on alcohol, absenteeism and reduced work efficiency with resultant low wages, loss of employment, increased expenditure on alcohol-related diseases and accidents, legal expenses on alcohol-related criminal offenses, and reduced eligibility for loans (Ranaweera et al., 2018). These economic effects do not only affect the household level but translate to national economic burdens. The measures to mitigate the prevalence of alcohol consumption are resource-intensive thus efficiency and effectiveness should be a priority.
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BEHS 364 7382 Discussion 1 References
Bardach, A. E., Alcaraz, A. O., Ciapponi, A., Garay, O. U., Riviere, A. P., Palacios, A., Cremonte, M., & Augustovski, F. (2019). Alcohol consumption’s attributable disease burden and cost-effectiveness of targeted public health interventions: A systematic review of Mathematical Models. BMC Public Health, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7771-4
Jyani, G., Prinja, S., Ambekar, A., Bahuguna, P., & Kumar, R. (2019). Health impact and economic burden of alcohol consumption in India. The International journal on drug policy, 69, 34–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.04.005
Manthey, J., Hassan, S. A., Carr, S., Kilian, C., Kuitunen-Paul, S., & Rehm, J. (2021). What are the economic costs to society attributable to alcohol use? A systematic review and Modelling Study. PharmacoEconomics, 39(7), 809–822. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40273-021-01031-8
Ranaweera, S., Amarasinghe, H., Chandraratne, N., Thavorncharoensap, M., Ranasinghe, T., Karunaratna, S., Kumara, D., Santatiwongchai, B., Chaikledkaew, U., Abeykoon, P., & De Silva, A. (2018). Economic costs of alcohol use in Sri Lanka. Plos One, 13(6). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198640